Crawley Town 5, Aston Villa u21s 2 - EFL Trophy: Telford finishes off superb win in Papa John's Trophy for Reds

Crawley Town gave themselves a chance of qualifying for the next round of the Papa John’s Trophy after beating Aston Villa u21s 5-2 at the Broadfield Stadium.
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Only a win would see Crawley go through to the next round –but now they have to wait two weeks to see if AFC Wimbledon beat Portsmouth.

Lewis Young made seven changes with David Robson, Tony Craig, Jake Hessenthaler and James Tilley the only players who started in the win against Newport County on Saturday.

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Jayden Davis, Ludwig Francillette, Brandon Mason, Ben Wells, Dom Telford, Remi Oteh and skipper George Francomb all came in.

After a promising start from the Reds, it was Villa who took the lead through skipper Seb Revan with a piledriver from the edge of the area.

Telford had some superb chances but met his match in Villa keeper Fil Marschall who pulled off a couple of top saves.

But not long after Tilley and Davis swapped sides, the latter scored a beauty to equalise.

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Davis picked up the ball after a corner, wrong footed a defender and fired home into the far corner.

Interim boss Lewis YoungInterim boss Lewis Young
Interim boss Lewis Young

Davis then turned provider as Reds took the lead. He used his strength to win the ball in midfield, drove forward before laying ball off to Oteh who picked his spot just inside the area to score ad give Reds a deserved 2-1 half-time lead. Davis the standout in the first 45 minutes.

Half time saw Francomb come off to be replaced by Marshall.

And the Reds did not have to wait long to make it 3-1. Just seven minutes into the second half, Telford – who has worked his socks off – did well on the right before finding Tilley, who in turn found Oteh in the box and he fired home from seven yards.

It looked like it would peter out at 3-1 as both sides made a number of substitutions but the game came to life again with ten minutes to go.

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Charlie Lutz pulled one back for Villa from close range. But any fears of uncomfortable last 10 minutes for the Reds were gone when Rafiq Khaleel laid off to Mark Marshall, who thumped home from 12 yards.

It was a deserved victory for the Reds with a lot of positives. Now we all just have to hope AFC Wimbledon win at Fratton Park in two weeks time.